The Republicans reacted angrily to President Obama’s aggressively liberal State of the Union address this week, saying that a bipartisan deal to avert the threat of $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts had now become less likely.

Although the President talked about reaching across the aisle to achieve co-operation in a divided Congress, he also underlined his determination to shift the political agenda to the left by making clear that he would take action on his own if Congress failed to fall in line with his proposals.

In a speech calling for a higher minimum wage, universal preschool education and